d soul of the
circle which was accustomed to assemble every Thursday evening in
Colonel von G.'s house. So that, as Angelica said, there was little
cause to be sorry that the less intimate members of the circle were
away, seeing that the more welcome ones had come.

It felt very chilly in the drawing-room. The lady of the house had had
a fire lighted, and the tea-table brought.

"I am sure," she said, "that you two gentlemen, who have been so
courageous as to come to see us tonight through such a storm, can
never be content with our wretched tea. Mademoiselle Marguerite shall
make you a brew of that good, northern beverage which can keep any
sort of weather out." Marguerite--a young French lady, who was
"companion" to Angelica, for the sake of her language, and other
lady-like accomplishments, but who was only about her own age, or
barely more--came, and performed the duty thus entrusted to her. So the
punch steamed, while the fire sparkled and blazed; and the company sate
down round the little tea-table.

A shiver suddenly passed through them--through each and all of them;
and they felt chilled. Though they had been talking merrily before they
sat down, there fell now upon them a momentary silence, during which
the strange voices which the storm had called into life in the chimney
whistled and howled with marvellous distinctness.

"There can be no doubt," said Dagobert (the young barrister), "that the
four ingredients, Autumn, a stormy Wind, a good fire, and a jorum of
punch, have, when taken together, a strange power of causing people to
experience a curious sense of awesomeness."

"A very pleasant one, though," said Angelica. "At all events, I do not
know a more delightful sensation than the sort of strange shiveriness
which goes through one when one feels--heaven knows how, or why--as if
one were suddenly casting a glance, with one's eyes open, into some
strange, mystic dream-world."

"Exactly," said Dagobert; "that delicious shiveriness was exactly what
came over all of us just now; and the glance into the dream-world,
which we were involuntarily making at that moment, made us all silent.
It is well for us that we have got it over, and that we have come back
so quickly from the dream-world to this charming reality, which
provides us with this grand liquid." He rose, and, bowing politely to
Madame von G., emptied the glass before him.

"But," Moritz said, "if you felt all the deliciousness of that species
o